1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a microscope-use digital camera equipped with a sleep function.
2. Description of the Related Art
Some among microscope-use digital cameras are equipped with a sleep function. The sleep function is defined as one for turning off the main power, the power of a partial circuit for bringing down to a low power state, a monitor display, or the back light of an LCD monitor, et cetera, when a switch input, such as a setup operation and photographing operation by an observer, is not performed for a preset length of time. A part or the entirety of functions equipped on the camera is accordingly constrained in a sleep state. The sleep function contributes to an improvement in duration of a battery in the case of a battery-operated camera. A cost reduction and an environmental load reduction are enabled by way of saving the power for a power source in the case of using an external power supply through an AC adaptor, et cetera.
Relating to a digital camera and a computer equipped with such a sleep function, techniques have been disclosed as follows:
For example, a patent document 1 (i.e., Laid-Open Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 09-197546) has disclosed a digital camera equipped with a sleep function. This camera is equipped with an interval photographing function (which is also called a time lapse photographing function) and a function of stopping an unnecessary power supply to a circuit if a photographing is not performed for a predetermined length of time or more, in which a normal state is recovered prior to a photographing operation, and the unnecessary power supply to the circuit is stopped again if a specified length of time elapses after the photographing operation, during an interval photographing.
For another example, a patent document 2 (i.e., Laid-Open Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 06-337739) has disclosed a computer equipped with a sleep function. This computer has a sensor detecting a presence or absence of an operator close by, and controls an auto-power off time according to the result, that is, turns the power off automatically if the operator is not present in the vicinity at a passage of a predetermined time, while extends the predetermined time if the operator is present.